Multiple Prices based on the Customer

[nwjh]

I am looking to set up a special area of my store for specific users. I am planning to sell cartoons, but as I make an agreement with each publication (e.g., newspaper), I also strike a price per cartoon, based on circulation, population, negotiation, etc. Each user would therefore have a unique price.

The idea is that a newspaper editor logs into the site, and then has access to the set of cartoons. They can browse them, see what they have already bought, and buy new ones. While the price will be the same for them for all the cartoons, their price will be different than for another publication.

Is there a way to set up pricing based on the specific user (once they have logged in)? That is, every user has a unique price, based on the previously agreed price.

Along with this, is there a way that a certain class of products cannot be seen until a user logs in, and that class of users (newspaper editors with accounts, say) are the only ones who can see that class of products?

I'm trying to avoid having two separate stores here, but that may have to happen if it isn't straightforward.

[nwjh]

Thinking about this, I notice no responses, which suggests it's either really easy or really hard! What about if I set a ridiculously high price, but then have a different discount code for each user, to bring the price down to the agreed value? OK, the discount might be 90% for some users, but it would achieve the appropriate price for different users. Is that doable?

[swguy]

This is certainly one approach. But given what you're trying to do, it might be better just to run your store in showcase mode (or make these particular products not available for purchase) and arrange for payment offline.

[mc12345678]

So, first you're possibly looking at a bit of custom coding... But, that aside:

There's one or more plugins that when happily working together allow what you're looking for. Need something that offers customers to fall into a group whereby product are available by different groups.

I'd say the "hardest" part is/would be the different price for different product, unless some uniform discount can be applied, I mean on a single product are there to be more than two prices associated with it? One the "everybody" price the other the "discount" price? If so, how are those prices going to be maintained/managed? (Dedicated price entering and management staff?)

I would advise against the outrageous price plan, unless you don't expect SEs to know/see the prices. If two individuals come across the same product in two places and one is significantly higher, that may be enough for them to go with the other place. (The first time).

[nwjh]

I did set up the group discount approach, because as I create an account (myself) for each new user as we reach an agreement, it was easy to place them in a specific discount group. While each newspaper may have a different price, that price is based on circulation, etc., and is typically very low. So let's say that I reach agreement with a small newspaper so that they only pay $5 per cartoon. If the 'base' price is $400, then a discount of $395 or 98.75% should do the trick.

As the cartoons are downloaded, there is no shipping, and there is also no tax (at the moment). So it should be straightforward. However, when I go to the shopping cart to test this, I get:

Sub-Total: $400.00
Free Shipping: $0.00
Group Discount: $397.47
Total: $5.03

Now the discount calculated is 99.3675%, and it's too high, and the overall calculation is incorrect. There's $2.50 floating around in there!

I have tried calculating the actual amount of discount to get to $5, but I haven't been able to iterate to a solution. I also changed the currency conversion ratio to 1.00, just in case it was that, but that made no difference.

I have also set up two stores, and did find an FAQ on using one PayPal account for two stores, so I will be using that to simplify the two stores issues (in effect, one is B2C, the other B2B).

I think we can probably discount the Pentium processor as a cause. Anyone have any ideas on this little puzzle?

[lruskauff]

Hi
I set up a test case in my store with a product price at $100. I set up a discount group at 95% discount and assigned one customer to it. I then purchased one of these with free shipping and the total came to $5 as expected.

So I would check to see if a simple test works. Then if it does, maybe it is something w the decimals. If it doesn't, check your other modules to see if other sale conditions might apply.

What version of the code are you using?

As to this method, will it chase customers away when they see such a high price? Will the same customer always get the same discount % for all items? How many levels of customers will you have? Just trying to think of other ways to do this.

Lruskauff

[nwjh]

Hi Lruskauff,

I went away and had dinner, then came back, logged on again and everything calculates correctly. I feel a right twit now! It may have been one of those browser things. I'll test it out with other percentages to make sure, but it may be just an oddity.

As to the 'discount' thing, yes, there is the potential for discouraging buyers, BUT the intention is to reach an agreement on the price before they get onto the site. That way there is a chance to explain the way the pricing works before they see that the 'base' price is much more than they will pay. Guaranteed 90% discount sounds good, too!

The idea is that there are some very small local papers in Alaska for whom something like this could be good, but their budgets are very tight. As the paper's circulation gets bigger, they can afford more. As there is limited overlap, especially among the small papers, there's less risk of repetition, and as many are weeklies, less again. It allows a product to be marketed to a range of buyers with widely differing levels of free cash, and yet support everyone. Using a web store, they also have choice about what to run, rather than being locked in to so many a month.

BTW, the FAQ on two store sites to the one PayPal account is here: https://www.zen-cart.com/content.php...count-for-both I'll see if it still works!

Thanks and cheers,

Bill.

[nwjh]

Just an update: yes, the two stores on one PayPal Payments Pro accounts works as described. A win! PayPal Support doesn't know that this will work!

If you need to sort out payments to each store, etc., your PayPal account will have the details of each transaction available, and these can be used to sort them into the different stores, if needed.

So it all seems to be working properly. The discounts are working correctly, and it's all looking good. Touch wood and all that!

Thanks for the input, guys! It makes a big difference to know you are all out there!

Thanks and cheers,

Bill.

[nwjh]

Just though I'd add a cautionary note. The two stores method does work with one PayPal account, although we are still testing it, i.e., it works for me, but I need to make sure it works for everyone else! I've followed the debug trail and things seem to work, as Zen Cart has a 'IPN NOTICE :: DP/Website Payments Pro notice -- IPN Ignored' note at one line, so the IPN issue seems to be functioning as expected.

BUT... While fiddling around in the Admin side of the stores trying to get this right, in the Payments Module, when you have the PayPal Express module open for editing, there is a PayPal 'username,' 'password' and 'code' required. I am using Safari on a Mac as the browser, and it finds the 'username' and 'password' items, and proceeds to stick my username and password for the Store Admin in there automatically, which overwrites the PayPal data carefully placed before. The only hint is that it gives the text box a yellow background. The 'code' box is left alone. If you are focusing on something else, because the PayPal stuff is OK, you will suddenly find that PayPal won't work for you!

This was a source of some anguish, especially as I changed the username, but not the password (it was blanked out, so couldn't be checked) several times back to what it should be, and things didn't work. It was when Safari changed it in the working store that I finally woke up to it.

I do need the auto-fill things, as there are so many log-ins and they often have cryptic passwords that my aging brain can't handle them all (or maybe I shouldn't have been so keen to boost the value of those brewery shares....). But beware of this side effect of an over-zealous auto-fill!